The shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey, has acknowledged that a Coalition government might have to deliver economic stimulus during a downturn.

The Coalition has repeatedly attacked Labor for “wasteful spending” and for presiding over deficits in comparison with the surpluses of the Howard government years, often erasing the stimulus spending during the 2008 global financial crisis from its analysis.

But in a speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia on Monday night Hockey conceded that “well-considered government action could be appropriate” if Australia’s economy slowed further.

“I would not be doing my job if I had not already given some thought as to how economic activity could be safeguarded should the downturn in the private sector become more protracted,” Hockey said.

“Australia has not experienced a significant downturn in over 20 years and I am determined that it will not occur on my watch if we are elected on September 14. Protracted downturns in economic activity are very damaging in terms of lost output and lost jobs and it can take a very long time for the damage to be made good.

“This could only occur if the normal cyclical failsafes of lower interest rates, a lower Australian dollar, and the automatic fiscal stabilisers were unable to provide a complete countercyclical boost. In that case additional well-considered government action could be appropriate,” he said.

But he promised the Coalition would not repeat some of the programs for which Labor had been criticised.

“You won’t see the Coalition sending $900 cheques to dead people. We will not be spending billions of dollars installing pink batts and then millions more removing them. And we will not be spending billions of taxpayer dollars on overpriced school halls that schools don’t want and which do nothing to raise the standard of education,” he said.

When the global financial crisis struck in 2008 Labor spent more than $50bn on a series of stimulus packages, meaning that in 2009 a forecast $20bn surplus became a $57bn deficit.

The Coalition leader, Malcolm Turnbull, said at the time Australia should have spent less on the stimulus – maybe $25bn or $30bn. The Coalition waved through the first $10.2bn stimulus package but opposed the second $42bn package on the basis that it was too big – and that spending of about $15bn to $20bn would have been more appropriate.